Foundation that has owned Oak Park house since 2001 says it would be better off in private ownership

The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park has placed the legendary author's boyhood home in Oak Park up for sale for $525,000.

Plans by the foundation to convert the house from its current use as a three-unit apartment house to a learning center fell through when Dominican University declined to continue partnering with the foundation, said listing agent Steve Scheuring of Baird & Warner.

As such, the foundation, whose mission is aimed at further the public's knowledge of Hemingway's work, decided that the home would be better off in the hands of a private owner who could restore the 4,200-square-foot space to its original single-family use, Scheuring said.

Built in 1906, the house was designed by architect Henry G. Fiddelke with help from Hemingway's mother, Grace Hall Hemingway.

Hemingway's family moved from another house in Oak Park to the house, at 600 N. Kenilworth Ave., in 1906, and the author lived there with his family until he graduated from high school. He returned to the house in 1919 to recover from serious wounds suffered in World War I.